Wells Gardner 9200 and arcadevga overkill?

[Negativecreep0]

Is buying an arcadevga card for this monitor overkill? I mean i have read a lot on this card and it seems its just for 15 hz stuff. But the WG 9200 does resolutions 15-30 hz on its own, So Why should i get arcadevga? Can someone explain to me the benefits of the arcadevga over a normal video card with this monitor? THanks i am really confused

[Wade]

That's the way I've always looked at it.

The beauty of the 9200 is it can be used with any old VGA card.  It can also do the 15khz stuff if you want to set it up and have a card capable of it.  Otherwise, it is nice to just plug it in and go, without bothering with advanced settings.

The beauty of the arcadevga is it makes hooking up a 15khz arcade monitor a snap.  Arcade monitors can be used with many standard, cheap vga cards, but it takes more time and effort to get it working.  The arcadevga makes it easy.

But combining both... just seems like a waste of money to me.  Using an arcadevga on a D9200 just seems like a waste of the capability of the D9200 to me.  Why buy a $500 brand new monitor when a used $50-100 would do the same thing (if used with an arcadevga)?

The D9200 is the ultimate in ease of use AND flexibility... using the Arcadevga (read: not flexible, but very good at its original intended purpose) with the D9200 just doesn't add up.

That said, some people do it, and there are a few good reasons to do it, but they might not be important to you.  I'm sure someone else will chime in.

Wade

[b3atmania]

If your monitor can do 15-31kHz on its own, then the benefit of the ArcadeVGA is having (most) MAME resolutions programmed in the VESA BIOS. It will make configuration of 15kHz based resolutions a breeze.

Apart from booting your PC with 15kHz monitor, the ArcadeVGA can't do anything most vanilla video cards won't do.

[AndyWarne]

There is absolutely no point in buying a D9200 unless you are going to take advantage of the fact that it can run at 15Khz. You might as well buy a much cheaper VGA-only monitor.
The D9200 will never run at 15Khz and give a genuine arcade picture unless it is driven at 15Khz by the VGA card. So that means either using Advanced MAME or an ArcadeVGA card. (or a couple of other methods such as the Trident card).
The D9200 is a great monitor because it can be used for PC and high-res 31Khz games as well as classic 15Khz games.
If you never play PC high-res games, you can save money by getting a 15Khz monitor, and conversely if you don't want the 15Khz games running at their native resolutions you can buy a VGA monitor.
The D9200 gives the ability to do both, but you need a way to drive it in the modes it's capable of handling. The ArcadeVGA card will drive it at 15 and 31Khz.
Advanced MAME is another way but much more difficult to configure.

[Wade]

Andy, from what I've seen the VGA-only monitors and the D9200 run about the same cost - $450.  If 27" VGA monitors are available for significantly less than that, please let us know where to find them.

Wade

[Negativecreep0]

now if i do get the arcadevga, do i just run the games on normal default settings for mame and arcadevga will autodetect the proper size reslution and all that kind of jazz for the game im playing?

[wpcmame]

Andy, from what I've seen the VGA-only monitors and the D9200 run about the same cost - $450.  If 27" VGA monitors are available for significantly less than that, please let us know where to find them.

Wade

You have to consider that the WG only does 640x480 (or 800x600 with poor quality) while a 27" VGA probably supports at least 1600x1200

[SpAwN]

I thought the same thing. So, I went with the WG9200 and a Trident Blade T64 Video card. I'm using AdvanceMame and everything looks great.

I made my decisions based on this great webpage

http://easymamecab.mameworld.net/html/d9200.htm

[AndyWarne]

now if i do get the arcadevga, do i just run the games on normal default settings for mame and arcadevga will autodetect the proper size reslution and all that kind of jazz for the game im playing?

MAME will run most games at their correct native resolutions automatically using the ArcadeVGA card. There are two different utilities which can be used to generate CFG files so that every game will run at the correct resolution based on the various resolutions which are possible with the ArcadeVGA card.
There is a utility for the ArcadeVGA card which unlocks the Windows 31Khz modes. Install that, and this will get the best from the D9200.

[Wade]

Andy, from what I've seen the VGA-only monitors and the D9200 run about the same cost - $450.  If 27" VGA monitors are available for significantly less than that, please let us know where to find them.

Wade

You have to consider that the WG only does 640x480 (or 800x600 with poor quality) while a 27" VGA probably supports at least 1600x1200

I hope I don't sound like I'm defending the D9200 too much or that I think it is the end-all-be-all of Mame monitors.  Trust me, I would have used a cheap 25" CGA monitor and an arcadevga if I were to do it again.  Or maybe one of those 27" VGAs, if I knew where to find them for a good price.  I know some people on this forum found them used for a good price, ebay etc.

That said, the comparable VGA 27" monitors I have seen only did 640x480 or 800x600 as well.  Even if those particular monitors could do higher, IMO it won't result in a better pictures, since the tube ends up being the limiting factor at about 800x600.

In addition, I think in this context the biggest concern is playing Mame, either with true arcade resolutions or with simple plug and play VGA.  Higher resolutions than VGA don't have an application in this context, as far as I know.  Agreed?

Wade

[Harakiri]

I'm sorry if this question is lame but what about "fresh" games that "i think" that need Hi-Res monitors like Tekken and Shiryu are the convertible to 15hz freqs.??  

[Minwah]

I'm sorry if this question is lame but what about "fresh" games that "i think" that need Hi-Res monitors like Tekken and Shiryu are the convertible to 15hz freqs.??  

You can run these at 640x480 interlaced on a 15khz screen, or 640x480 non-interlaced on a D9200 or PC monitor